Home Sweet Home

I moved from San Antonio to Round Rock in August 2002 and bought this house there in February 2003.



It was a new neighborhood that quickly declined due to a high number of foreclosures. When there was a murder just around the corner from us, we decided it was time to move. My parents bought some land on Canyon Lake so we wanted to move closer to them but stay in the Austin area. Our search led us to Buda (pronounced BYOO-duh, like "beautiful"), which is just south of Austin. We moved the first weekend of September, 2006. Ken fell in love with this property because of the long acre that backs up to a wet-weather creek - and we LOVE the ten-year-old neighborhood. The house is a little smaller than I had wanted, but we hope to add-on in the future. We really don't want to move again, ever. So here's the "new" house:



Any ideas on improving the curb-appeal? The window to the right needs to be white like the one on the left, which means removing the screens. And I think maybe we should add shutters but I'm not sure about color... suggestions?

This is our backyard from the creek:


I still own the Round Rock house so if you know anyone who'd like to rent a 1300sqft house for $950/mo, send them my way! Please. Seriously, it gets pretty scary during the months that we don't have a tenant and it comes time to pay both mortgages.
Here's our listing.

My 2nd Career

I love teaching, but it has its moments. It's a thankless job and the vocal parents are rarely the ones with anything positive to say. In my third year at Hopewell Middle School, I was starting to become pretty burned out. I no longer said that I would teach until retirement, I ceased putting in the long hours, and it became increasingly difficult to get out of bed on school days. One of my eigth graders, who had been in choir with me for three years, was pregnant. I took this personally - why didn't she know that *I* loved her... she didn't need to give herself up so young. I started to feel as if what I was doing, as if teaching, no longer made a difference.

Sylvia, the art teacher at Hopewell and one of my bridesmaids, asked me to serve as her "wedding coordinator" for her March wedding. Of course I said yes, but I really had no idea what that meant. She said she just basically needed me to make sure everything ran smoothly so that she could enjoy her wedding day. I knew that was something I could do. I had helped at tons of weddings starting at the age of 8 when my parents' business, Omni-Video, got its start in the wedding business. Since then, I had served as bridesmaid, maid of honor, singer, reader, videographer... I was definitely familiar with the details of an well-planned wedding. So, with Ken's help, we ran defense at Sylvia's wedding, taking care of everything from decorating to clean up, and helping the DJ stick to our itinerary in between. At the end of the night, Ken suggested I do this professionally. At first, I just laughed. "Yeah right... like I can just quit teaching and people will pay me to run their weddings!" But then I googled some Austin wedding coordinators. I felt like I could easily do all of the tasks these wedding coordinators provided, and at a much more reasonable price. So, over spring break of March 2005, I built a business! My sister made our website and I posted on the Austin talk board of The Knot that I was looking for some non-friend brides that could use a wedding coordinator for their April weddings - no fee, just an honest review of my services, which I could use for promotional purposes. By the end of March, I had my DBA Something To Celebrate and 4 April weddings! After their weddings, all four of those brides posted raves about us on The Knot and thus started our business. In order to keep up with my weddings, I resigned from my position at Hopewell and took a less-demanding position teaching elementary music in Hutto (just east of Round Rock). In that year, 2005, we did 14 weddings and began advertising with Austin Wedding Guide in their magazine as well as their quarterly shows, the "Bridal Extravaganzas." In 2005 we did 41 weddings and I left my Hutto teaching job for a part-time elementary teaching job in Round Rock. This combination is perfect because I get full benefits but teach only every other week. This has also renewed my love for teaching a bit because I teach for a week and just as I'm starting to get sick of the kids, I get a week off! It also allows for me to meet with brides and vendors during the day on my weeks off. I'll keep this up as long as I can. :) So far, we have 18 weddings booked for 2007, and one for 2008.

Why God Led Me to Round Rock

After teaching at a Catholic school in San Antonio for 2 years, and marrying off Blythe, my roommate, I knew it was time for a change. I had never lived away from San Antonio so I was thinking BIG and applied to teach for the Department of Defense overseas. I was contacted by three schools in the countries of my choice, but none were for positions I really wanted so I declined. By June, I was getting worried as I had resigned from the Catholic school (a whopping $19k per year with 60 hour weeks), and didn't have a replacement lined up. I prayed about it quite a bit and started looking at districts in Texas that I knew were reputable. I found one district with one opening that I wanted - middle school choir director for Round Rock ISD. I applied, drove up for an interview, and was offered the job. In July of 2002, I moved to Round Rock, where I knew NO one.

I really struggled to find friends that shared my beliefs and values, and began to question why God would want me to move to this place. Then came Ken, my knight in shining armor. :)

Ken was in charge of the guys who set-up new schools, like the one where I was just hired. When I arrived for my first day of work, I was in a bit of a panic when I found that my choir room was filled with hundreds of desks and chairs - it had been used as the building area by Ken's guys. My principal gave me Ken's number and told me he was the guy who would take care of it. And he did! And once the room was cleared, he kinda kept coming by, asking if I needed anything. I was a snob and dismissed him as being too "blue collar" for me. But God is good and Ken was persistant.

In October 2002, I had promised my 8th grade boys I would go to their last home football game, but none of my other teacher friends were able to go with me. Ken came by, "I hear you're looking for someone to go to the football game with. I like football."
I smirked, "You like middle school football??"
He smiled, "Yeah!"
"Well, I'm only going to stay until half time because then I need to go to the high school choir concert."
"That's cool. I like music too."
So why not. We ended up going to dinner before the game and I was so impressed with Ken's manners! And I learned that we both grew up in the Church of Christ and here he was... the first person I met with my values and beliefs. I suddenly regretted having previously been so dismissive. On our way out of the restaurant (Chuy's, by the way. YUM!), we ran into a family Ken knew and he tookt he time to introduce me to each one of them. The guy I previously dated never introduced me to anyone. When we got to the football game, he brought something for me to sit on because the bleachers were a little wet. At the choir concert, he got a little teary-eyed during one of the songs. And at the end of it all, he walked me to my car - a perfect gentleman. I was wooed. We had our first date a week later (October 8), found a church home within a month, started pre-marital counseling with our preacher in January, were engaged in April, and married one year and 4 days after our first date - October 12, 2003.

In retrospect, I can see clearly that God led me to Round Rock to meet my husband. And I'm so glad he did. :)

I Miss My Friends!

I was just stumbling across the blogs of some of my friends from Trinity and I remembered how much I miss you guys! So this is my attempt at regaining touch with all of you that I've lost touch with...

I miss Rob's socks
Erik's giant, dirty blazer and his playful arrogance
Dave's inability to close his mouth while playing guitar
Ryan's humor and love
IHOP
weekly accountability with Pam and Anna
hosting parties with Blythe, and "Arms of an Angel" at night
Schlotzsky's with Allison
Luke's honesty
worship team! And small group!
Adam and Matt
Parker and Brie
IV retreats
Bond
the hospitality of the boys in Isabel
I miss having a community of accountability and growth with people who were genuine, flawed, and so fun.